It all started when…

This book is written for women in their fifties, sixties, and beyond. This is a rich stage in life. You know yourself better than you ever have. You have established a career, or raised a family, or traveled the world, or become an expert at something, or all of the above. Perhaps you have experienced great love and lost it. Perhaps you have not found love yet. Whatever the circumstance, you have had time to learn what works for you and what doesn't, what fulfills your life and what drains it, what sort of people you love to be around, and what sort you avoid. You have most likely spent time learning about yourself, recognizing strengths and weaknesses, and improving the things that don't work. In short, you have cut out many of the problems people in their twenties and thirties face when they are dating, simply by living your life. You are starting your next journey on the Romance Highway from a good place.

I come to this topic with a tremendous passion for working with women over fifty, a passion formed by my own history. In 1990 I was diagnosed with advanced cancer, an experience that helped me to learn firsthand the value of companionship and how basic and important the desire for human connection is. I was in college at the time and did not know that my career would take me where it has, but the reality of people's need for other people was cemented in my psyche. I experienced loss and a lack of control over life's circumstances at a very young age, giving me compassion for others who find themselves in situations of loss, such as divorce or widowhood.

My early career was spent working for a dating service when the matchmaking industry as it exists today had not yet started. I immediately was drawn to and felt tremendous respect for clients in their forties, fifties, and sixties who were struggling with loss, trying to figure out where they were in their lives and where they wanted to be, and who were eager to meet someone. Even though I had not yet lived their years, I had, in a different way, lived their experiences of loss and desire for companionship.

During almost twenty years in the industry, I saw again and again the pattern of women over fifty signing up for matchmaking services while men in the same demographic did not. I felt these women's frustration acutely, and felt powerless when the database was empty for them. That was when I started researching online dating. This book represents all that I've learned about finding love in the 21st century, online and off, since 2008.

I use the metaphor of the Romance Highway to emphasize that dating is not like a tunnel, with only one way through and no detours. Highways offer multiple routes, different speeds, off ramps, frontage roads, and rest stops. Your journey will be based on your life as it is today, and will not be exactly like anyone else's. My goal is to help you see who you are and what brings you joy, an awareness that will increase your confidence and magnetism. This book will start you on a journey of discovery, an exciting evolutionary process that brings a new level of self-knowledge, clarity, and ultimately, relationship success.